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AQVR 332-2
The proposed album is a collection of extremely rare recordings of a
prominent russian singer Georgy Mikhailovich Nelepp (1904-1957), which
during the 1940-50ies succeeded in creating a series of unforgetable,
classical renditions in his roles on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater.
Sadko and German, Imposter-King and Sobinin, Jose and Florestan, Jontek
and Rhadames - these and other parts are well known and have been issued
times before. The art of G.M.Nelepp, which strikes us by it's
astonishing freshness, wholeness, sheer poetical purity, probably can
best be described by the words of the operatic producer L.V.Baratov:
"When we reminisce of the great singers we had a chance to hear, we
often begin by admiring their vocal technique - their breathing, the
refinement of their tone, the effects of piano and forte, and other
details of such nature, because these were indeed the things that mainly
drew our attention in their singing. This rule does not apply to Nelepp.
When he sang, no one at the audience ever fixed his attention strictly
on the vocal - on the high notes or the difficult passages. No one could
think of applauding him for reaching a brilliant high do, because that
would of ruined the entirety of the impression created by his singing,
and it was exactly this unity of impression, the vitality that gripped
and wowed the audience in the case of Nelepp. It was as if his voice did
not belong to him, but to the characters created by the great master,
expressing their human and emotional essence". The veracity of this
judgement is proven before us every time we listen to the marvelous
recordings of this singer - both operatic and chamber. G.M.Nelepp had
never given a solo concert program, but was willingly making recording
sessions for the record company and the radio - romances and songs of
Glinka and Dargomyzhsky, Mussorgsky and Grieg, Tchaikovsky and
Rachmaninoff, Gurilev and Varlamov. To the masterpieces of his art can
we can ascribe the vocal cycle of Glinka "The parting with
Saint-Petersburg", "The Wedding" of Dargomyzhsky, "The Sea" of Borodin,
many of Tchaikovsky's romances. But alongside with the widely known and
famous performances, the singing heritage of Nelepp includes many very
rare and forgotten pieces. Among them, for example, is the opera-balet
"Bacchus's Triumph" by A.Dargomyzhsky and many chamber compositions. But
what can probably be singled out as the biggest lacuna are his
outstanding duets with other great russian singers - Sergey Migay,
Andrey Ivanov, Antonina Klescheva. While we made an effort to issue
almost all of his duets with Migay in our triple-CD collection of the
singing of S.I.Migay, still the duets with Andrey Ivanov and Antonina
Klescheva remained virtually unknown and unreachable for the public. It
is exactly these recordings we had in mind when we compiled this
particular CD.
Maxim
Nikiforov
Alexander Dargomyzhsky «The triumph of Bacchus»
1. Introduction, recitative, chorus
2. Bacchus’s march and chorus
3. Dance of the satyrs
4. Entr’acte and aria with chorus
5. Finale
6. Golden, silken curls (Alexander Gurilev)
7. The Knights (Alexander Dargomyzhsky)
8. Swimmers (Alexander Varlamov)
9. The river roars (Alexander Varlamov)
10. Nocturne (Alexander Varlamov)
11. Too premature, flower, you blossomed in the field (Alexander Varlamov)
12. Remembrance (Mikhail Glinka)
13. Evening bells (Alexander Alyabiev)
14. Charm of the passed days (Alexander Dargomyzhsky)
15. The autumn wind beats in our glasses (Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov)
16. By farewell (Anton Rubinstein)
17. A cloud (Anton Rubinstein)
18. Oh, repeat it again (Luigi Badia)
19. Look, how the moon is bright (Fabio Campana)
20. A Word (Otto Nikolai)
Andrei Ivanov, baritone (7-10), Antonina Klescheva, mezzo-soprano (11-20)
Piano: Naum Walter (6,11,13), Matvey Sakharov (12,14,15,20), Georg Orentlikher (7-10), unknown piano-player (16-19)
Recorded in: 1948 (6, 14, 15, 20), 1950 (16, 17), 1951 (11, 13, 18, 19),
1952 (7, 12), 1953 (8-10)
Total playing time: 74.30